As raw material, labor and waste disposal costs escalate, technological advances provide a competitive means to increase productivity while decreasing cost. In labor intensive industries, advances in ergonomic or labor-saving technology can improve the work environment, as well as provide increased productivity and efficiency.
Technological advances are needed in the labor-intensive forming operations of the fiber glass industry, in which glass fiber strands are wound into forming packages. In the forming area, glass filaments are drawn and gathered into fibers at a high rate of speed from a fiber forming apparatus, or bushing, connected to a supply of molten glass. The fibers are gathered into one or more strands and wound upon a rotating collet of a winder to create a forming package.
At the beginning of the winding operation, an operator typically winds the strand about a non-expandable endcap of a collet and, when proper winding speed is achieved, shifts the strand to wind about an expandable mandrel of the collet to form a forming package. When the forming package is completed, the operator shifts the strand from the mandrel to wind about the endcap and ceases rotation of the collet.
The strand wound about the endcap must be removed from the endcap before removing the forming package from the mandrel. The rotational speed of the collet can exceed six thousand revolutions per minute, thereby subjecting the strand wound about the endcap to high compressive forces. The layers of strand which are tightly wrapped about the endcap can be difficult and time-consuming to remove, typically requiring the operator to sever the strand with a sharp knife. The knives must often be sharpened or replaced due to the abrasive strand material and generally are not ergonomically desirable equipment. Severing the strand will become increasingly difficult in the future as the number of individual filaments in the strand and consequently the strand diameter is increased to improve productivity and efficiency.
For removing waste yarn from a spindle of a draw twisting machine, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,695,018 and 3,768,242 disclose removable waste cones for mounting at the support base of the spindle. The cones include fingers which move outwardly as the cone is slid downwardly into position at the base of the spindle prior to winding and which retract upon removal from the spindle after winding. Waste fibers are wound about the expanded cone and can be removed when the cone is lifted from the spindle and the fingers are retracted.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,891,798, 3,544,016, 3,687,381, 3,871,592, 4,093,137 and 4,154,412, disclose rotatable collets which include a non-expanding head piece or endcap and a radially expandable mandrel for retaining a forming tube about which a package of fiber strands can be wound. The mandrel can have fingers which are displaced radially outwardly from the mandrel by, for example, centrifugal force or pressurization to thereby expand the diameter of the mandrel. Glass fiber strands are wound upon a removable packaging tube positioned upon the expanded mandrel to form a forming package. The mandrel is collapsed to facilitate removal of the wound forming package.
In a winding operation using such expandable collets, waste strands generated at the beginning or end of the winding process are typically wound upon the non-expandable endcap or a portion of the removable packaging tube which extends over the endcap. As discussed above, removal of waste strand wound about a non-expandable endcap or the end of a packaging tube is difficult. In addition, waste strand wound about the end of the packaging tube can distort the shape of the tube, thereby increasing the possibility of the tube disintegrating during subsequent winding operations. Increased tube wear also decreases recyclability of the tubes. There is a need for a device which facilitates removal of waste strand produced during the winding operation to improve ergonomic efficiency and increase packaging tube longevity.